Each time I visit Jozi, I have to set aside all my Capetonian prejudices. A late-October visit reveals Johannesburg at its prettiest. The trees are still in their first flush of green, the roses are in full bloom and clouds of purple jacaranda are mirrored in a baby-blue sky with puffs of white and the promise of rain.
Very liveable indeed.
Then there is that urban edginess that Jo’burg has turned into a unique selling point.
I was bowled over by my first visit to the revitalised Maboneng Precinct for the official opening of MOAD (or Museum of African Design). Here redbrick industrial meets urban chic and the punters stream in to see what this old 1930s Art Deco factory between Commissioner Street and Fox Street has to offer. Cape Town hipsters, you’ve got some catching up to do!
It’s a beautiful space that does more than justice to the larger-than-life pieces that are both artworks and everyday objects (coffee tables, chairs, wall hangings, sculptures) that form part of the launch exhibition, Southern Guild 2013.
Some of the artwork is perhaps not to everyone’s taste, like this knife block by Cape Town based sculptor Jop Kunneke who works in a wide range of media, including bronze and aluminium castings.
Realist sculptor Anton’s lifesize figure of a female nude cast in marble dust and resin seemed to be mingling with the cocktail crowd.
Go and see the exhibition and MOAD for yourself (and a tip from one of the punters at the opening: visit in the morning when the light streams in from those huge factory windows). Jo’burg has definitely pulled yet another urban renewal rabbit out of its hat ...
Beth Armstrong is a Johannesburg-based sculptor and blacksmith who made this mild and stainless steel coffee table.
Ngwenya Glass’s beautiful installation made out of recycled glass catches the light beautifully in the warehouse exhibition area.
A recurring theme at the Southern Guild 2013 exhibition is interlinking pieces, like this table by John Vogel, who studied architecture.
And speaking of rabbits, there’s a great deal of charm in young ceramicist Nico Masemolo’s rabbit family.
